1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer network management, and in particular, to methods of finding a path between two nodes in a computer network.
2. Background Information
Network management protocols are used to keep track of state data of the nodes in a computer network, such as the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). The Management Information Base (MIB) of the SNMP protocol defines the pieces of information that can be retrieved from a node. SNMP uses queries to the nodes to obtain information from MIB tables at the nodes. A client program, such as the Network Node Manager™ (NNM) product available from Hewlett Packard of Palo Alto, Calif. with the OpenView™ portfolio, can be used to produce SNMP queries to the nodes and to display the retrieved information.
One method of finding a route between nodes uses a command, such as the commonly available traceroute command. The traceroute command can be implemented using Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) queries to the computer network nodes.
Another method to determine the nodes in a path uses stored network topology information to calculate the path, and to find both routing and non-routing nodes of the path. The calculations do not always account for the state of the nodes which may have changed since the network topology information was last updated. This is especially an issue for routing nodes, whose routing tables typically change quite often.